(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a content distribution technique for distributing contents in accordance with a user request.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Recently, extensive study has been conducted on techniques for distributing contents from a server device to a terminal device over a network in accordance with a user request. A server device stores a plurality of content files, and each content file contains a plurality of pieces of content data. The server device receives a user request, which is a keyword designated by the user, from the terminal device, and selects pieces of content data based on the keyword, and transmits the selected content data to the terminal device.
There are two types of content distribution techniques, a streaming type of content distribution and a download type of content distribution.
In the streaming type technique, a server device sequentially transmits, to a terminal device via a network, only content data out of all the content data contained in a plurality of content files stored therein. The terminal device sequentially plays back the content data as it is received. Further, according to the streaming type technique, received content data is not accumulated in the terminal device, so that it is required to newly receive content data from the server device for every viewing.
According to the download type technique, on the other hand, a terminal device accumulates content data transmitted from a server device. Thus, it is possible for the terminal device to play back the content data some time after receiving the content data. One problem associated with the download type technique is that when the terminal device receives a plurality of pieces of content data, the playback order and other information regarding the plurality of pieces of content data need to be managed. This management requires the user to go though troublesome operations. In addition, although the content data matching the keyword is merely a part of a content file, the server device is still required to transmit the entire content file. This gives rise to another problem that content data that is not requested by the user is transmitted.
In one attempt to address the above limitations, the server device regenerates content data to be transmitted as a single file, and transmits the regenerated file to the terminal device. However, this attempt is not practical especially for the server device operating on a network to which a number of terminal devices are connected because it is inevitable that a great portion of disk capacity of the server device is consumed.